Severe monsoon floods in Southeast Asia; abnormal rainstorms in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay; extreme heat-waves in southeastern Europe and Russia; unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows us an early-2007 global climatic collage full of abnormalities.
Heavy rains were only a small part of what this country has been through in the past seven months. The early-March blizzards and summer droughts in the Northeast, rainstorms in Chongqing, Jinan in July, tornadoes in several eastern provinces, as well as continuous high temperatures in Shanghai and Fuzhou have rewritten a host of local meteorological records, some centuries old.
In July alone, almost 139 million people were directly affected by natural disasters. That was about half of the seven-month total.
The striking coincidence between the national and international meteorological scenes reminds us no country is an outsider in the process of global climatic change.
The WMO is working on upgrading its extreme weather pre-warning capabilities. So is the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). Struck by the damaging potential of extreme weather, authorities in victimized areas are running against time to refine emergency response plans.
Preparedness is always crucial when disasters strike. That is why we are in favor of a disaster awareness campaign. This is more imperative because of the unprecedented frequency of extreme weather events, and the expert projection that extreme weather will be increasingly "normalized."
But preparing is not the only thing we can do about extreme weather. We can actually contain it.
Both the WMO and the China Meteorological Administration attributed this year's unusually frequent extreme weather to global warming.
It is common sense now that greenhouse gas release caused by human activities, and unrestrained human exploitation of natural resources are the main causes of global warming.
In this sense, every country and everybody can contribute. And every little bit we do will be of global importance.
Governments should feel ashamed when they avoid their environmental responsibilities and point the finger to others.
(China Daily August 10, 2007)
